Love's Disappearance
by KuroShin Master
Summary: Shintaro wakes up one morning to find that his one true love had disappeared from his room last night. Ene, feeling a little sorry for him decides to help him out with his search.


**Love's Disappearance**

The sight of pale, white snow falling onto the ground in front of him only made his depression worsen. Normally at this time in the morning, he would be up and about inside his room spending quality time with his beloved computer. But now 'that' had occurred, he felt empty inside. Like as if someone had just taken a big chunk of his soul out of him. He felt enormously tired, frustrated and empty at the same time, which was obviously not a good thing for him.

After standing outside his house and staring into the distance for what must've been hours, he finally snapped back to his senses and slowly trudged back inside. He was greeted by the sight of his mother beaming at him proudly just as he was about to make his way upstairs to heaven.

"My my, Shintaro-kun! You've finally stepped outside without anyone telling you to! What a marvelous improvement!" She exclaimed, clapping her hands together. Shintaro's sister, Momo, stood there in the corner, trying not to burst out laughing at the expression he was wearing on his face at the moment. He gave her a withering look, hidden to his mother, and went up to his room.

"Welcome back, Master!" Ene suddenly popped onto the computer screen, surprising Shintaro and making him trip over his own feet. It didn't look like he had made much significant improvement with his social skills yet, seeing as how shocked he was just by the sound of a tiny cyber-being greeting him.

"Geezus, Ene! Do you really have to be so annoying?" He sighed, gathering himself up and plopping down on a chair. He made sure he was in a comfortable position before he pulled in in front of the computer, facing Ene's grinning face full of mischief and cheekiness.

"Thanks for the compliment." She chirped in her usual cheery tone. She waved the sleeves of her blue jacket around randomly before quickly adding in, "I did some research and I've found where 'she' has disappeared to." Of course, since 'her' disappearance had been the source of his current mood, he immediately perked up, interested in what she had to say.

Seeing his sudden reaction to her words, Ene couldn't resist letting out a tinkling giggle. "Hahaha! Alright seems like I've got your attention for now." She made a swift arm movement and several windows popped up onto the computer screen. One was security footage of the house and the other was a windows document.

"Let me read out a report of the information I've got so far…" She cleared her throat and began to read aloud the words:

_From what I have gathered so far, this case is about the disappearance of Shintaro Kisaragi's beloved. Her identity is to remain hidden for now, because of certain circumstances. *_

_The victim's lover claims that the two were together last night in his bedroom at the Kisaragi residence doing some indescribable things that I shall not mention in here because of obvious reasons. He says that when he woke up at approximately 9 in the morning today, she was already gone without any traces of her ever being there at all._

_Several theories that I, Chief Inspector Ene, have come up with are that Shintaro's girlfriend was nothing more than a mere illusion, she was already dating someone else and had run away in the middle of the night or that someone had come in and kidnapped her. _

_From the security footage I have salvaged, there appears to be no suspicious characters entering the room during the night. Only the younger sister of Shintaro, Momo, had come in while he was in the bathroom at about 11:34pm. After questioning the possible kidnapping suspect, she admits that she has indeed been in his room while he had been preoccupied but says that she wasn't doing anything wrong. She had just come in to clear away his trash as he was unbothered to clean it up himself._

_The above information are the only pieces of data I have acquired so far. _

_~ Chief Inspector Ene_

"And that's about it!" She smiled at Shintaro, closing the document before settling down in a position where she could face and talk to him without difficulty. He, on the other hand, just stared back at her blankly. "You never told me she had come into my room." He muttered, his feeling of irritation levels soaring up inside him. At that moment, he was wondering whether he should install a device on his bedroom door that would make it so a password was required to enter. It seemed rather extreme especially since it wasn't like there was a zombie apocalypse going on, but he didn't want anyone fooling around in the only current place he could call heaven.

Ene simply shrugged at what he said, appearing to be unfazed. "Well, you could always hook up with another girl." She knew that she was being kind of heartless and uncaring, but she only wanted to tease Shintaro for a while. It was one of her favorite hobbies after all.

"No way! Rane was my one true love and she will always be!" He stood up and cried out in response, blinking back some tears that threatened to make an appearance and roll down his cheek. He glared at Ene without saying another word before flopping back down on the chair in a fit of sobs with his hands covering his face.

"Eh? Eh?! Master, are you crying..?!" Ene wore a half amused, half concerned expression on her face, which meant that she never knew that he would ever reach this crying stage over a single girl. However, she suddenly became interested in what this Rane girl was like and tried pressing Shintaro for some answers.

"Ne, I know you're upset and all that, but what wa- I mean _is _she like?" She questioned him curiously. She had to be careful with her words otherwise he would never answer her, and that would make her extremely frustrated to the point that she would search every nook and cranny of the Internet for clues. And perhaps that would mean exposing some information about Rane that he probably wouldn't have wanted to know about.

Shintaro looked up at her from his hands, confused. "… Huh? Well… I guess you could say that she really likes the colors red and white… She makes me feel warm and fizzy on the inside. And, she makes me really happy." He said the last part with obvious enthusiasm.

"Oh. I see… " Ene nodded, even more curious that ever now. Every part of her was demanding answers now and she was getting all hyped up over it. She had absolutely no idea how she ever missed seeing Rane coming into the room last night, but it could've been because she was busy playing a virtual version of cards with Momo. And now that Momo was in her mind…

"Perhaps your sis has met Rane, so I'm going to ask her." She told Shintaro, waving her blue jacket sleeve to signal that she was going to leave the computer to enter Momo's mobile phone in a second. Just as she was about to disappear completely from the screen, she saw him leap forwards with his arm outstretched. "Wait! Don't ask−" His words got cut off as her surroundings turned a blindingly shade of white and pale blue.

As she travelled through the network of systems and internet connections, several questions appeared in her mind. _What was he about to say to me? Why did Rane not appear in the security footage? _These puzzled her greatly but perhaps they could be solved after questioning Momo and then Shintaro later onwards.

Momo had been drinking a mug of hot chocolate when Ene suddenly appeared in her mobile phone, causing her to almost spill it. "Woah! What's wrong?" She asked her, bringing her device closer to her face to see the tiny cyber-being more clearly. Ene suppressed a chuckle from seeing the surprised face from before asking, "Do you know anyone by the name 'Rane'? Someone who's reaaallyy close to Shinshin?" Around others, she would call him by that embarrassing but cute nickname, whenever he was out of sight of course.

The pink-jacketed girl was about to shake her head and say no when she recalled something. "Rane…? Hm… Yes… I had seen her in his room last night, I just forgot to tell you about it. And I know exactly where she is right now. We have to hurry though." She replied with a tiny smirk.

Ene's face lit up, her excitement showing. "Really?! I'm going to go tell Shinshin!" She was about to go back when Momo whispered to her, "No need."

Momo raised the phone up in the air so Ene could see Shintaro standing there at the bottom of the staircase, hidden relief showing on his face. He ahd probably heard what his sister just said a moment ago about knowing where Rane was.

"Well, now that the gang's all here, let's head off to my room!" Momo grinned mischievously, waving a hand to tell her brother to come closer.

Ene was a little puzzled about the location but shrugged it off anyway.

A minute later, the three of them (well technically two of them to be exact), were sitting down on Momo's peach-decorated bed. Shintaro had never been in here before so he took some time staring at all the posters and items hung on the pink-painted walls. Compared to his room, this looked all bright and cheerful what with all the decorations and all that.

"Alright, so where's Rane?" He finally demanded with a hint of steeliness to his voice. He stood up and began frantically looking around again for his beloved one. This was a side that Ene had never seen before and almost felt respect for him.

"Idiot, she's here." Momo exclaimed, walking over to the curtains and pulling them aside to reveal a wooden table behind. And on it were several items with one of them capturing her brother's attention immediately.

"Rane!" He shouted in a loud voice, running over to the table and grabbing a soda can. He brought it close to his face and kissed it, tears streaming down his cheeks in a steady flow.

* Ene does not know that Rane is not a human.

RAmuNE


End file.
